Akadia

Table of Contents

Introduction

Akadians believe that magic will solve the problems of the world, and they look to the Grand Masters in their many Towers to find the solutions and often identify problems.

Those who live in Acadia without magic work as servants, farm and ranch, conduct trade and business very much as they do anywhere else, they just have wizards in a fit randomly killing people with Finger of Death and have to meet the needs of the Mages.

Years ago, Sibola was engulfed in a civil war. Out of it came two groups who failed in their bids to rule and were driven out. One group settled in what became Aztlan, the other kept moving, having heard tales from the Exilian of unique places, ultimately, the second group founded Antilia, but the first group were sent to carve out a living.

Nestled in among the valleys of the Kunlun Steppes lies the place and time that is Akadia, where most Wizards learn their crafts and Arts. Separate yet a part of the whole, they are an autonomous Ward as the realm of Akadia, where the mountains themselves are the walls, and there are none around the villages, hamlets, towns, and cities of the mile-high world to itself.

Akadia has no walled cities, towns, villages, or hamlets. Yeti rarely come down from the snowy heights, and there is much game in the wooded valleys that all tend to have small lakes and streams passing through verdant fields. It is very much steppe country.

The mighty House of Skye controls the Skyships from here, the principal way in and out of the main valley; the only other route is a torturous, winding, narrow set of switch backs that can take a week to traverse when in the best of shape and with light wagons that begins in the city of Gateway, the major mercantile port and seat of the Warden.

Beyond Gateway, it is a land of hills, fields, towers, and small villages, each overseen by some Mage who has set up shop there and either hired or attracted people to them. It is easiest to say that Akadia is anarchist in its nature, but this belies the underlying truth: it is not. Akadia is a wholly subject vassal state of Sibola, that is allowed by the custom of the Wardens, to do pretty much what it wants, and it is a realm of Mages who have all the practical power and authority, that then delegate it to those who do not have magic and provide for their needs.

The Ruling Mages are all called Mage Lords, and often they have delegated their authority to someone who does not possess the ability to use magic who acts in their stead for others. Mage Lords oversee the villages and towns – with towns coming for a group of mages who at least at some point worked together on some project – and officially have final say over pretty much everything.

It is not unfair to say that when one lives in Akadia, you are taught and trained to do what is asked of you by a mage with absolute obedience. There is no use of Magic that is outlawed in Akadia, and mages can get a sense that they are the most important people, something even their own history undermines.

Towns

Gateway: upriver from The Sea of Tears, it is a fortified town that acts as the gateway to Akadia proper, and all roads into the realm lead through it. Gateway is the seat of the Warden. To the east of Gateway is a broad open area that is very wet and is used to grow a variety of rice called Cold Rice, and is about the only reliable staple crop of Akadia for export.

Shambala: in the East, where most of the Mages tend towards a darker, more unsafe form of magical research. Over the mountains lies Seahold, which seriously considered moving for several years until a particular Wizard was killed by some adventurers for turning a member of their party into a toad.

Shangrila: This was where the skyships were first created and is mostly given over to the construction of things and the learning about them and figuring out what else one can do. They banned flying carpets, and tried to ban brooms but that didn’t work out well.

Amarava: Some Mages decided they would rather live without all the secrets and the weird focus on more exploration and are interested more in showing that magic is not a threat to the everyday person. Outside the Vale of Akadia proper, it is a much-preferred stop for merchants than Gateway.

Features

Akadia is a broad steppe country for the most part, with a single navigable river that has one navigable tributary. Weather comes in off the great Sea of Tears and is funneled up into the drier, colder hill country, steppes and moors for the most part. Thick forests cling to the base of the mountains that create the peculiar nature, and most farming and ranching is done within the central plains around Akadia Proper, which spans the confluence of the tributary and the main river.

Rivers

The major river of Akadia is the Eureka, which is navigable deep into the hinterlands where it is said an ancient fort stands built by some now forgotten Wizard.

Feeding into the Eureka is the Euripides River, coming from the western mountains where it is birthed by a spring that dives for 400 feet into a pool called the Tumescence that is the source of the river and the main source of water for a small hamlet.

At the confluence of these two rivers, Akadia City sits, turning the rivers into water wheel burdened flows and using canals that serve to ferry the magiocrats throughout the city while the rest make do with the broad, tree lined avenues.

Mountains

The Prisongate Mountains, averaging 12 to 15,000 feet high and having only two high passes in addition to the broad vale that is captained by Gateway, provide a ring that separates the inner Ward from the Northern, Southern, and lowland Wards.

Legacy

In Akadia, magic is a must.

Akadians believe that magic will solve the problems of the world, and they look to the Arch Masters in their many Towers to find the solutions and often identify problems. It is an interesting conflict between the often baser desires and aloof thinking of many an Akadian noble that they are also driven by a set of strong and rigid values that ultimately work to highlight helpfulness and creative problem solving.

They also tend to promote a bit of jealousy and pettiness. The great Airships are the products of Akadia, their wealth shared by all Imperials, but the Enjin of Dorado’s Posse of Rails infuriates them – they even mandated that it cannot stop in Akadia proper and must go no further than Pass Keep. Note that no Rails reach Pass Keep.

Outlook

Akadians are intensely proud people, often arrogant, frequently haughty.

Akadian mages think of themselves as above others and are constantly condescending toward others. They have an intense sense of pride and habitually demand people to attend to every one of their needs. Some of them take their seeming narcissism to the extreme by viewing themselves as perfect godlike beings who demand subservience from people. Sometimes, however, their arrogance brings about their downfall.

The reason for all of this is twofold. First, they are Mages. Akadia is the realm of mages, ordered to be created by the first Emperor, founded by the first Vizier, and existing as a pure and unrepentant magiocracy, where only those with magic have authority, power, and prestige.

Unlike in all other realms, there is no magic here which is illegal – all magic is legal, and everyone is more or less aware they could be subject to some kind of spell at some time, because this magiocracy is almost an anarchy.

The presence of the Marshals and the Imperial Enforcers tends to curb some of their worst excesses, but not much, and there is the ongoing challenge in that magic is not automatically inheritable.

The second reason is tied to the last bit there – only a small percentage of all the people on Wyrlde can use magic, and since it is not automatically inherited there are no dynasties or similar powers. As a result, to keep the great Towers filled with Students, the different colleges and their masters quietly employ urMages to seek out, find, and bring back children to train and preserve the way of life they have built.

They overlook the fact that urMages may buy children, or steal them, or kidnap them, or more. As a result, among the most important places in the entire realm is The Orphanage, and adoption by a Master is considered the normal standard.

Those who live in Akadia without magic work as servants, farm and ranch, conduct trade and business very much as they do anywhere else, they just have wizards in a fit randomly killing people with Finger of Death and have to meet the needs of the Mages.

For Mages, the days are spent learning, teaching, experimenting, developing new spells, creating magical items, and all the assorted aspects. Nearly every mage of age in Akadia has a staff of 10 to 20 people whose job is to anticipate and respond to their needs and often even coddle them a bit, cajoling them to bed or to eat or something. Given that many Mages have a strong trait of being readily distracted, while also being able to concentrate deeply, these folks are usually treated well by the Mages by custom and tradition, but also because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have anyone.

Akadia is famous for the massive Towers. Some of them are simply the homes of mages, three, five, even seven stories tall. Others, usually the largest, most magnificent, are school – the infamous colleges.

For most other people, the one benefit to Akadia is that there are exceedingly low taxes since everyone works for a particular Mage and all they need is provided by those who work for them. Excess and additional is pretty much freely sold, bartered, traded, and used, and every avocation and vocation are represented.

The Guilds are strongest in Akadia because they, too, are headed by Mages. This is a key thing – where power is, a Mage is. Even if they don’t seem like it.

The schools focus on training mages to serve the nobility and aid the broader world, meeting their sole request from the Emperor so long ago. They exist to enable, to improve, to study, to drive forward magic, and they are none too fond of Lyonese as a result, for only they tend to be able to compete.

This realm is a magiocracy. All roles of power and authority are held by or operated under mages of some sort or another, ideally by Wizards.

Akadia is built and functions around the needs of the many most powerful Mages – across many different fields and affinities, axioms and studies. As magic is not directly inherited, it deals with a need for new mages to take up and learn from those who have been active in their research and learning, and it is expected by default that all Mages are actively seeking to improve and hone their crafts, living in their towers and closing out the world around them.

This means that those who are closest to mages are the ones with the most real power in the realm, and they are not often afraid to use it. Each tower will have a group of people whose basic core function is to make sure that maintenance is done, that things are cleaned, that there is food available, that everyone eats, that even a late-night session is looked after.

As a result, Akadians have a reputation for being outstanding Innhosts, and for good reason: every one of them is taught from an early age to help support Mages in some way since it is pretty obvious, they are so caught up in their work they forget to do other things. They take care of themselves by taking care of the Mages – be they a Pedant or a Pupil, a low level or a high level.

But it is not always wonderful. Mages can be demanding, cruel, rude, inconsiderate, and worse.

Lifestyle

Life for most folks in Akadia is often considered better than that of folks in Sibola or Aztlan. Rent is inexpensive, work is plentiful, commerce is brisk, and there is always something interesting happening somewhere, as a side effect of a lot of the secrecy of the wizards is that gossip is nearly an art form here, and rumors are a baseline expectation.

For Mages, the days are spent learning, teaching, experimenting, developing new spells, creating magical items, and all the assorted aspects. Nearly every mage of age in Acadia has a staff of 10 to 20 people whose job is to anticipate and respond to their needs and often even coddle them a bit, cajoling them to bed or to eat or something. Given that many Mages have a strong trait of being readily distracted, while also being able to concentrate deeply, these folks are usually treated well by the Mages by custom and tradition, but also because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have anyone.

For most other people, the one benefit to Acadia is that there are exceedingly low taxes since everyone works for a particular Mage and all they need is provided by those who work for them. Excess and additional is pretty much freely sold, bartered, traded, and used, and every avocation and vocation are represented.

The Guilds are strongest in Acadia because they, too, are headed by Mages. This is a key thing – where power is, a Mage is. Even if they don’t seem like it.

Every major town and city has a large orphanage that cares for the parentless. These orphanages are businesses, often operated by or employing people who work as UrMages – the child thieves. Officially illegal, and under a death penalty for those caught smuggling stolen children, there is an intense problem in Akadia around those who seek a magic capable child of their own to pass on their secrets to, and the fact that there are people who get angry about their children being stolen.

Adoption from a regular family does happen and often, but not frequently enough to satisfy the desire of the Mages of Akadia. Given some mages are vile people, this is not an unfounded concern, but nevertheless the trade continues, and because they exist, it is common for Sibola, Durango, Lyonese, and even Qivira to send their orphans in large batches here, or for families to send children they cannot care for there.

This is how, ultimately, the original magicless population arrived – they were orphans. The orphanages are also the location of the Tanjins, and most Akadians will welcome children into their homes, as it often seems that there are fewer children in Akadia than in other realms.

Family

Akadia lacks many of the ties to the great Houses. This is due in part to the way that many of the children arrive: they are stolen or bought by the UrMages, and do not have knowledge of or a link to their House as a result.

Pupils will descend there from all over often to their shock and dismay that no one cares. This is also noted in the ways in which families are built – it is common for friends to become lovers, finding love on their own. Lineage matters little, but is traced through the paternal side, and often they will simply create their own surname for themselves, leading to some fascinating oddities.

Incarnates are welcome and often helped to adjust, even though they would have grown up, because there is a great deal of freedom in a land where the people in charge are too busy to bother with minutia and rarely act unless something is missing, or their whims are being thwarted.

Officially, Marriages are set and recorded by the local Mage Lord, and courtship is typically in the Sibolan model, with men courting, women being courted, but after that it all changes. There is little in the way of dowry, but there may be business issues to figure out – and many farms are combined by marriages.

With movement between the villages frequent and often, there is a good chance of having to turn a farm or lease over to someone else. In many ways, it is the freest realm for this, as no one has much say over the desires of others, and disputes are handled by the Lord Mages or their assigned deputies.

Government

While Akadia is under the official, direct rule of the Empire, it usually doesn’t feel like it. The presence of the Marshals and the Imperial Enforcers tends to curb some of their worst excesses, but not much, and there is the ongoing challenge in that magic is not automatically inheritable.

A point is tied to the last bit there – only about ten percent of all the people on Wyrlde can use magic, and since it is not automatically inherited there are no dynasties or similar powers. As a result, to keep the great Towers filled with Students, the different colleges and their masters employ urMages to seek out, find, and bring back children to train and preserve the way of life they have built.

Nitressa, Grandmaster Mage of Shang Tower, and her extended family comprise the highest levels of government, rarely bothered save for intrigues. The real governance is handled by the Regional Governors and a massive, rule bound bureaucracy that attends nearly everything else. Given latitude by the Wardens, this particular Tower is one of the oldest, and the official seat, in Akadia proper, of the real leadership. Other Towers are also found there – it has excellent water and fields, and helps ensure the Mages won’t starve, since they are so devoted, and it also houses the several different colleges that fill up so much of the time of those learning.

A Mage Lord is responsible for everyone living on the lands they are assigned and their well-being. Failure to care for them is not an option or one may find oneself living at the command of others, as the Wardens have the ability to do much to them.

Courts and such are overseen by the local Mage Lord, who is appointed by and reports to the Warden. They in turn appoint officials to handle these duties. As corporal punishment is not practiced, the sentences are usually fines and stripping of social status, combined with public humiliation, but also, they are known to sentence people to be experiments or experimented on (though with a guarantee of safety of life and limb) and even some punishments involving polymorph.

The military of Akadia is a standing body composed of four kinds of troops: Infantry, Cavalry, Mage, and Skyship. Towers supply Mages. Airpower is a major factor, with Akadian Skyships usually faster, more maneuverable, and more advanced than any outside of Akadia. The Military is part of the Sibolan Ward, who all serve the local Warden. They make use of all those who are assigned to them, with a focus on getting the greatest mastery out of all of them. Patrols are led by Skyships, supported by Cavalry, and backed by infantry, with mages scattered throughout the units.

Only Mages can hold a position of power, can own land, can make laws (and then only for their own Towers), can decide the nature of the realm as it moves forward. They are left alone to do this by the Warden, whose primary role is to ensure that none are engaging in the work of something like the Razing (and it was one time, I swear!) or fomenting rebellion. This is why the military is under the Warden.

The Tower of Skye (called the House of Skye outside of Akadia) is the source of the wondrous flying machines. They also tend to promote a bit of jealousy and pettiness. The great Skyships are the products of Acadia, their wealth shared by all citizens, but the Train of Dorado’s Posse of Rails infuriates them – they even mandated that it cannot stop in Acadia proper and must go no further than Gateway should it ever have a chance to reach there.

Commerce

It is not inaccurate to say that Mages can be somewhat difficult to deal with, in part because many are taught and raised to think that because they have magic, they deserve everything they have a desire for. As most Mages in Akadia are for hire, and will often have inherited generational wealth from those they were taught by, and the products of and services of Mages are highly sought by folks with wealth and power, there is a great deal of money that flows into Akadia, and as a direct result, that money brings with it goods and trade that serves to, in the most formal sense, meet the needs of the distracted, arresting Wizards, Witches, Warlocks, and more.

Education

Education is the primary focus of the people of Akadia in one sense: magic requires effective training, a honing of gifts, a mastery of skills, and so the city of Akadia itself is little more than a city of colleges and the things needed to support those colleges.

There are Tanjin set up, open to all, and there are schools for bards, Witches, Wizards (so many wizard schools), Sorcerers, Warlocks, and more. Courses run from the start of Dawn through the end of Dusk, and are taught by Pedants, while those learning are called Pupils.

The typical person attends school, learns a trade, goes into a relatively peaceful life, and if they are great, they will find themselves asked for help by some mage on a project – this is a common goal of many, as Mages are not known for having great skills as wrightwork or smithwork.

Schools

You cannot speak to the nature of Akadia without speaking of the Schools. There are dozens of them, most styling themselves as a University, and composed of several teachers who work together to teach and share their arts and their secrets as best they can, to the limited students that they have available.

The preferred age to enroll a student in one of these Academies is six years of age, following a preparatory phase of at least two years so that they are not very far behind. Grand Masters, Adepts, and masters all teach and work and experiment in these locations, and the buildings are often demolished and rebuilt more than a few times, with one rule fairly common among all of them – if you kill yourself, you didn’t learn the lesson.

Most of the student body is composed of children who were bought, kidnapped, found, or somehow managed to show the spark needed. The lack of an heir and the nature of Akadian society means that not having a child to pass your knowledge on to makes you only a lesser mage, for when you go your secrets will go with you.

There are many of these schools – some are for Wizards, but there are also schools for Witches, for Warlocks, even Colleges for Bards and schools for Envoys. Every village, town, and city has several schools, and all of them compete for students, relying on the reputations and renown of the teachers, the Pedants, that run the schools.

All of them focus on the basics of the particular form and profession of craft they are following, but the differences arise in that after Cantrips, the students are left to learn from their masters, cajoling and begging and otherwise wheedling out from them the spells and forms that become the basis – and this is one of the major tests, for it is when they can cast a learned spell of at least rudimentary level that they are considered to have moved up, and it is when they have managed to get at least three of them from two different mages that they are said to have graduated.

One side effect of this, even with the blind eye the Wardens turn to it all, is that many spells have been lost, leading many to spend a great deal of time trying to create new spells. All of this is driven beneath it all by the terror that should one die without passing on their knowledge to an heir, that they will be forgotten, and because it is rare for magic to pass through the blood, there can only be a giving of these otherwise hoarded secrets to someone that they must somehow find a way to trust, wo demonstrates the proper level of devotion and dedication to that effort.

Culture

Values

Knowledge and Skill are highly valued in Akadia, knowing how to do something better than anyone else while still passing on your skills is considered one of the greatest rewards.

Privacy is a large value, and the sometimes-comical interactions between Mages and their closest servants, who both seek not to pry into the life of the other yet still accomplish their goals of either receiving help or giving it and growing closer.

Love and Affection are a distinct thing that permeates much of Akadia; the idea of caring for someone else over yourself often strikes many as strange, given that Akadia is famed for its egocentric, self-absorbed Mages, but the way that people are raised sticks with them, and in a nation of people who were mostly orphans at one time, the need and recognition of attachment, affection, and love are all important.

Arts

Akashik arts tend to be temporary, spectacular, and showy among the Mages, but among the common folks are colorful, bright, cheery, and centered on scenes of everyday life – with a notable absence of Mages.

Noble Fashion

Akadian Nobles are all mages, and tend to be dour, self-important people dedicated to ritual, appearance and minimal distraction. As a result, most Akadian fashion is based in simple cassocks and robes, with a round, soft cap or a traditional pointed hat, as befits the taste of the individual, in black, gray, and white.

This contrasts sharply with the average person, who tends to dress in colorful clothing, as a counterpoint to the often dour and monotonous clothing of the mages.

Culture Heroes

Akarian, who was the second Steward of the realm, and fought to build the perfect society that they have.

Haridan, whose magic drove the invading Thyrs away during the era of the Black Ship Invasion.

Nestor, who raised the very first Tower and who crafted the spell to make them.

Cultural Armor

Only some folks wear Armor in Akadia; Mages think that magic should solve that problem for them.

As armor often interferes with the ability to perform the movements and aspects of a spell or ritual, it is fairly rare in Akadia, but they have developed a kind of padded set of clothing that can be a bit bulky at times. It was originally intended to help determine the effectiveness of certain spells but proved to provide at least some protection from Lemurian bolts. It is called Packet Armor.

Packet Armor is an Akashik invention. It includes a set of pants with little protection behind the knees, a tunic that covers to just below the elbow, and occasionally a set of gloves or helm. It is very warm.

It is thicker than normal clothing, consisting of a fabric suit that covers the body like a second skin and must be custom tailored, quilted and embroidered, with a host of small spaces filled with “packets” — a mix of tough fibers woven around thing metal and ceramic plates, then furred for cushioning. This way, it still enables freedom of motion. The downside is that they become a persistent cost as generally the pieces must be replaced each month, essentially making the cost of the armor something one must pay each month as they replace the hundreds of small plates.

It is often joined with a spell shield, which adds a +1 to AC but is also a target for the Simple Magical Shield spell that many are taught. Many folks and most Mages will have in their homes a small, round shield, about the size of a dinner plate. On some occasions that shield will be able to be spelled, or may have a magical function, but it is more common for it to just be a sturdy, well-made item meant to intercept blows in close contact, worn on the forearm.

Cultural Weapons

There are still tales and stories told of Akade and the Rebel mages, whose failed coup resulted in the creation of Akadia by the then Emperor. Akadia is a place of exile for the most powerful mages, and the only realm where people do not freak out at the sight of magic being performed, and where all magic is legal. There is a sense that if it can be done, it can be done better by using magic.

While the realm may not be visited by the Train, it is still subject to raids from the sea and from below, and even the mountains are known to harbor some strange and dangerous creatures (which Villagers are often sent to capture). Lemurians (especially Imps, who love to steal from the Mages), Duatians, Thulians, Corsairs – there is a need to defend at some point and at some time, and so nearly every farm or village home has some sort of weaponry.

By law, no Akadian may carry a sword or possess a long knife unless they are in service to and answerable to the Warden. This is enforced beyond Gateway, and those descended from the founding Mages will often be very particular about it. Especially those who are also Mages. As a result, Akashik weapons are a peculiar thing, since officially no mage is allowed to go armed upon pain of Severance. As a result of this, Akadians are much more creative with their weapons.

With the intent of the prohibition on swords being to be a limit on the weapons one can have for war, the people of Akadia opted to be far more creative in their tools. They have a broad assortment of knives, none longer than about 16 inches, which are used for self-defense. These Akashik Knives, or Athames, are a wavy bladed knife with very sharp outer edges and dull inner sections, the very tip being useful to piercing or slicing. It is said they are used with quite a deal of finesse when people have trained with them since they were children.

The Kadaga is a specially fitted, glove-like weapon that covers an entire hand. While this makes casting spells impossible if it is in hand, the wide, double-edged, pointed tip blade is braced by the palm and wrist and makes for an outstanding punching weapon or a way to parry a blow. Often called punching dagger because people forget the name Kadaga.

For ranged efforts, most Akadians use Akashik needles, a throwing needle that is usually 6 to 9 inches long , they thin and light, tapering to a point, made of wood, ceramic, or metal. They are also often used as hair sticks and are readily and easily concealed in slim pockets that they can draw from in a smooth motion for throwing.

These needles are not normally set up with any kind of coating, but are often useful in connecting to spells and other effects, while also being a good weapon for getting in between the chinks in armor.

Spread the Word:

Akadia
Official Name	The Akashik Magiocracy under Warden		Flag
Motto	Magic Above All
People	Akashik
Goods	Akashik	Akadian	Symbol
Crafts	Akashian	Akadic
Honorifics	Lord Mage	Seras
Greeting	Well Met!	Huzzah!	Symbols	Tower		Starburst
Parting	Success!	Few Demands!	Colors	Green	Yellow	Orange	Blue
Temples	Ululani	Melane	Shrines	Mansa		Lamia
Towns	Gateway	Shangrila	Secrets	Pallor		Urisha
	Shambala	Amarava	Known For	Rice	Magic	Luxuries	Secrecy
Rivals	Lyonese	Dorado	Foes	Sibola
Weapons	Athame, Kadaga	Throwing Needles	Weather	Cold, Dry		Cloudy
Armor	Akashik Packet	Spell Shield	Wealth	+50		1 Trinket
Language	Akashik	Trade	Literacy	Akashik		+1 Slot
Respect Shown	When meeting someone of a higher station, bow your head with your hands clasped before you.
Folkways	First names are only used among close family members when strangers are not present.
	Being helpful is ingrained in how they speak, always phrasing things as an offer (including mages)
Virtues	Knowledge	Skillfulness	Caring	Affection
Vices	Unreliability	Incuriosity	Rudeness	Ignorance
Skills	Arcane	History	Ritual
See Others	Lesser, Useful, Pathetic, Needful
Others See	Haughty, Prideful, Pedantic, Scary